How The Arts Can Use Social Media
David Moore is evidently quite the hip hop dance teacher. In fact, after watching about a dozen of his videos on YouTube, I think he’s damned amazing. There are dance classes in my town. I have a six year old daughter. She might enjoy this.
Look where my head goes when I look at someone’s class. I investigate because it’s visual (and you could do this with audio, too. Don’t forget my friend Grace Nikae). I get excited, and I start thinking about me, and my family, and things that might relate to me.
If this moves me to spend money (and it might), why wouldn’t you consider this for your small business, especially if it’s visual.
Watch David. Then tell me what you think.
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Will Companies Value Your Personal Network
Your job resume tells people what you’ve done in the past and where you’ve done it. Is that the sum of your capabilities? What about your resourcefulness? What’s the value of the people you can reach in your various networks, online or otherwise? And how should companies value this facet of your professional experience? Do companies need to consider how this might impact their departments?
With Sales, it’s a No-Brainer
Sales is a relationships game. The more folks you know, the deeper your Rolodex, the better your chances of finding the right hinge to close the sale. Building networks of value, where you can be helpful is made far simpler with these tools. They don’t do the work for you, but they give you new ways to reach out and establish connections, and stay just a little more in touch with other people’s environments. A salesperson who’s not exploring tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and yes, even Twitter, is missing some potential opportunities.
How does your organization stack up in this regard?
For Other Departments, It’s Still Pretty Good
Imagine the difference of employing seven software engineers versus having access to thousands of engineers. How powerful is your internal marketing team when they are aligned with social networking tools and the ability to listen to your customers via these tools? What does your HR team miss by not having their listening powers tuned into the robust stream of human capital that roams Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn?
Customer Service is Trickier
In this time of economic downturn, customer service is often viewed as a cost center. Reducing average handling time, and reducing representative headcount are the realities, and no matter what the mission statement says, except for the amazing companies, you’ll find that customer service is more of a “must have” requirement than an empowering strategy. And yet, there’s gold in these hills. It’s just harder to do. For thoughts on how to advance customer service, see Lionel Menchaca and Frank from Comcast for a few simple examples. My take? There can be MUCH more going on here.
And YOUR Personal Network?
When I look at the networks people have built around them, there’s value there. Tangible value. Consider someone like Liz Strauss. She reaches out deeply into her community to build events like her popular and successful SOBCon. She gives and gives, and then when she needs something back, Liz has a strong network of multi-layered contacts to reach into for her needs.
It’s amazing, really. Liz alone is a powerhouse to hire, but if you really did give credit for her extended network, which reaches into the largest companies in the US, UK, and for all I know, the rest of the world.
How do you place a value on that? What does it mean when you can reach deeply into your network for nonprofit fundraisers, or job placement, or contact to land business deals? If you are an employer, or someone involved in the hiring of talent, how much is this influencing your thoughts?
I think this is something that goes into the consideration and metrics of hiring practices in the next handful of years (at least for some sectors). What do you think?
Photo credit, Jurvetson
Some Differences Between Pitching Mainstream Press and Bloggers
Meet the next generation of people who put stories out on the web. I say “next,” but blogging has been around for years and years. Some of us are making decent money at it, hiring and employing staffs, etc. Those types seem like mainstream press. But they’re not. One difference? We blog based on what drives our passion, plus in the case of some folks, what drives revenue.
Blogs have reach. Blogs don’t have as many barriers to cross before you reach the decision maker. Blogs don’t (always) require a PR agency to help you get access. Blogs always need good content, right? So it seems like a natural thing to just lob stories at a blogger, because more often than not, they’re going to be receptive, will run the bit if it fits their readership (viewership), and everyone wins, right?
Some differences.
Bloggers Often Write From Passion
Lots of us can’t NOT blog. We love what we do. We’re obsessed with getting information out into the world. Desperate to be useful. I’d say that we’re like news junkies, only we’re really interested in how we can contribute to making the news.
Bloggers Have a Bit More Ego Feeding Required
Try to disagree with me on that one, but when I just start rattling bloggers’ names down quickly, I can tell you that there are things you’ll want to do to reach out, and one is to know what makes a certain blogger tick. Want to get into TechCrunch or Mashable? Be sure you’re giving one the exclusive, and pick wisely. Want to get covered by Engadget? Don’t give it to Gizmodo on the same day. Go a few tiers down in blogs and what we want is to know that you know who we are, and what we cover. A pitch about something in my general area isn’t the same as noticing the kinds of things I write about and giving me something that fits.
Bloggers Like Free Prize Inside Experiences
If you want us to write about your software app or your new gizmo, give a few away. Nokia, Nikon, Flip, GM (Saturn), Garmin, and tons of other companies have given out gear on loaner programs (sometimes handled well, and other times handled a bit weirdly). And if it’s not something directly tangible, it’s something like getting invited to a pre-screening of a movie, or to a closed beta of an application, or something else that makes one feel exclusive. Still an ego play, and yet, very effective because once we play with your toys, we’ll be inclined to write about them.
Will we be fair and give opinions on the competitors like an official review site? Not always. Depends who it is, whether that’s part of their bailiwick, and whether they even know how to approach such a thing. I sure don’t. If I’m given something free to mess around with, I disclose it when talking about it, but then, my site isn’t a journalistic effort to review things fairly.
Bloggers Don’t Have To Be Polite
Though I prefer politeness, and try to be polite often (Sorry, Tom), it’s not required. And we don’t always do what you’d wish. It’s a little uncertain sometimes what you’ll get when you send a request to us. Wish it weren’t true, and I would prefer that we be polite more often, but we don’t have to be.
What Twitter Had to Say When I Asked My Friends
(That’s a hint, too. We’re far more networked. We talk to each other. We talk about YOU.)
Pitching ME
First, I have to say that I’m not usually on the lookout for a news story. If you read back through my posts, a great many of them deal with strategy and tactics that people can employ. I read about 1000 news items a day, plus I have a day job that isn’t professional blogging. So, I don’t always need news.
And yet.
If you’ve got something interesting about a new tool, a new way that someone’s using social media to build business or organizational relationships, a sense of what’s interesting to me and want to feed me something, here’s what you might do:
- Be my Twitter friend.
- Have read my last ten blog posts to have a sense of my flavor.
- Give me links, pointers, possibly screenshots, and follow up in about 9 days when I still haven’t managed to get your story out.
- Kindly understand if the story doesn’t fit what I cover (often).
- Realize that I can’t always check out your website.
- Understand that a “social network for ____” (dogs, lawyers, imaginary friends, ex-cons) isn’t really new unless they’re doing something REALLY new.
- Write the first paragraph of your email as if you really did only send it to me (I get it, but pretend, okay?)
While We’re At It
Here’s what I *am* really interested in writing more about, and where you can help me, if you’ve got an interesting story:
- Social media and network use inside the enterprise. (Spoke at Thomson/Reuters and IBM recently and was really impressed in both cases with what they’re already doing).
- Specialized social network applications - things that make a network more valuable, vs just profiles, blogs, pictures, and friends.
- Books about social media, social networks, next-generation PR/marketing, business, etc.
- Business models that aren’t advertising-centric. (For instance, Sermo has a neat model. So does Gimp.TV).
- Mainstream people coming into social media in a realistic and meaningful way.
- Nonprofit and organizational experiences with social media that have made an impact.
- Location-based tools and networking (for instance, I’m digging Yahoo’s Fire Eagle stuff)
- Technology that improves business, that improves personal interfacing with the Internet.
I’m probably forgetting a few of my favorites in there, but let’s start there. If you’re pitching something like THAT, drop me a line. My contact info is in the sidebar. I’m easy to find.
Further Reading
Social media expert, Jason Falls covered an advertising professional’s view on this recently, and that’s worth checking out, too.
Edelman’s superstar, Leah Jones showed us how to talk to bloggers.
Your Thoughts?
Lots of people who come here are PR or marketing professionals, journalists, and the like. What do you think about what I’ve said so far? What are your tales of success with bloggers, or your tales of woe? Bloggers, am I wrong in my starting concepts about what might feel different about bloggers vs mainstream press? I’m eager for your take.
Screen caps made with Skitch
What Comes Next With Social Media
Once everyone understands the tools, accepts that they should be part of the conversation (or moves on from the notion), has accounts and presence where all their customers are spending time, what comes next? What should businesses and individuals DO once they’re set up?
If you were advising Ford, who by the way, is looking for someone to sign on to help with their global social media strategy, what would you suggest they do once they gave you the green light?
Marketing to My Ego
I was sifting through my “ego feed,” which is a set of searches on terms like “chris brogan,” “podcamp,” and about two dozen other terms that matter to me and my efforts, and I found this post. So, I start reading to see why this came to me.
I find this:
I’d really love to get some of the Social Media Elite (think Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang) using Brightkite as well, because the more people using Brightkite at the event, the more we’ll all be able to actually connect (and stalk each other).
First, thanks, Jenn, for calling me “elite,” though I just think of myself as someone trying to get the word out. But ego-wise, it’s flattering, and she lumped me with two folks I like, Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang, who definitely use ego surfing tools as well. So, it was like a perfect storm of getting my attention.
I think Jenn accomplished her goal here. I took a look at what she was promoting. I clicked through to BrightKite. I sent my request for an invite to try it out.
Jenn used a blog post, RSS tools, Clipmarks, and the knowledge that I’m using RSS-based searches to find such information, and hit me spot on like a laser with her campaign.
What’s your take on her marketing method? It worked on me, but is that because I’m weak of mind? Is that because I’m too egotistical? It’s not scalable, but I’ve just told MY audience about her product, so it scaled well enough. What’s your thinking?
I use Plasq’s Skitch for screencaps
What I Want a Social Media Expert to Know
There are lots of people throwing “social media expert” out there. Hell, I had it as part of my “about” on my blog, but I’ve chosen to just say that I advise people. It’s more accurate, because expertise is fairly darned fleeting out there right now. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about things I want a so-called expert to know (and I want you to add to this list, or call me out if you disagree):
Strategic
- Which department you think your role should fall into.
- How your role ties to marketing, PR, advertising, R&D, finance, HR, sales.
- What tasks you’d expect a community manager to perform, and how would you measure them.
- How you expect a company to engage in “the conversation,” and what processes will go into place to make any of that matter.
- How to turn blog posts into business leads.
- How to listen and find where people are talking about you.
- Ways to report your weekly listening and community work to a very senior level person in a huge company that has about 2 minutes of time to hear your briefing.
- Know about 100 people in the space who are doing something. The more diverse the profession and location, the better.
- How to launch and operate a blogger outreach campaign.
- How to tie other media into social media as an integrated campaign.
Tactical
- How to install a blog (pick your software) on a hosted server.
- How to edit the sidebar to include a widget, or an embed, or anything.
- How to create, edit, and post at least one other type of media besides text.
- At least five social network accounts active, including but not limited to: LinkedIn, Yahoo! Groups, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
- How to find and subscribe to a podcast WITHOUT using iTunes.
- Five stats worth knowing for any blog/website.
- How to structure a blog post so that humans and Google like it.
I’m thinking there are probably another 40 things I could add to either list, but instead, I’m going to let YOU. (Ones that I agree with will go up into the main post until we have a pretty decent list.)
And remember, call me out if you disagree. What’s your take on what you expect a social media expert to know?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com].
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Photo credit, Joe Shlabotnik
10 Ways To Make Your Next Conference Better
Before your next conference, consider these 10 simple things:
- Scour the web (technorati and Google Blogsearch) to see who’s coming, and reach out to people you want to see.
- Schedule meetings with people on day 1, as soon as you can, because time runs out.
- Drink more water than you normally do, and wear VERY comfortable shoes.
- Pack business cards. Tons of them. But get theirs, because then YOU can ensure a reply.
- Have a really simple, brief sentence to answer: “What do you do?” “What are you working on these days?” “What brings you to the conference?”
- Blog a VERY RECENT photo of yourself so that people know who they’re going to meet.
- Check Upcoming for related events and parties. Attend a few.
- Take some pictures of you and some folks you meet. Post them with links to the people, if you can find such.
- Never assume people are better than you, or that you’re somehow not good enough or important. You are. And if people don’t know you yet, go in like they know you reasonably well anyway.
- Don’t hide behind your laptop, BlackBerry, camera. Step out and be brave a few times. It WILL pay off.
Would you be willing to add YOUR advice to the comments? I know you’ve already thought of something I’m forgetting on this list. Help us out, okay?
Five Things to Do at a Social Networking Meetup
Meetups are the online manifestation of our social networking efforts. With Twitter and Upcoming.org and Facebook and all the other social networks, putting together a bunch of like-minded people is relatively simple. You find a venue that doesn’t mind a bunch of nerds, preferably with a place you can be loud (because social media types are often the loudest bunch in there, unless there’s a bachelorette party), and hopefully some delightful libations to ease social interaction. But what do you DO there, once you’ve walked in and identified that you’re in the right place. Here’s a recipe:
Say Hi to Your Known Friends
Often times, someone at the meetup is known to you. Make sure you say hi to them earlier in the night than later. I’m working on this one, because sometimes, what happens is that I’ll be somewhere with friends, and never get over to see them because time gets eaten up so fast. I’m going to make a point of saying hi to my longer-known friends first at meetups, so that they feel acknowledged.
Find the New People
Look for folks who might be new to your local scene, or that you haven’t met before, and introduce yourself. My favorite opening line is to ask them what they normally do when they’re not hanging out with a bunch of Twitter geeks. If that doesn’t work, I like to ask people about their passions.
Don’t Crowd Surf Too Much
There’s a tendency that’s easy to follow to just flit between crowds. It’s not a wedding. You don’t have to hit every table. If you find something interesting, don’t be afraid to dive deep into the conversation for a bit. Get into some deeper waters with people, because otherwise, time will wash over you like a wave and you’ll be out without much to show for it.
If You Need to Do Business
Try to think of these meetups as a first date. Don’t put your tongue down our throats. In other words, if you’re there fishing for new business, play it cool, and be part of the gang. Talk about what’s relative, and don’t swerve things instantly into your line of business and how you can help (sell) us. However, it’s okay to say that you’re hoping to build business relationships or the like. Just make that for a follow-up conversation.
Talk About Something New
Whenever possible, come with some really neat new idea to throw into the mix. Think of it as mental show and tell. Or hell, do real world show and tell if you’ve got a nifty new something to show people. But consider bringing something new to the meetup. It will enrich everything. (Don’t force it into the conversation, but have something new in mind.)
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What do YOU do at meetups to make them better, more interesting, a reflection of the value of real space versus online social networking? Tell us about your favorite meetups, or things that you’ve seen happen that you liked.
